Report of tainted Halloween candy a hoax

11/06/2015 03:59PM
● By Steven Hoffman

After a thorough investigation, the
Chester County District Attorney's Office and Kennett Square Borough
Police Department announced that the report of needles being inserted
into Halloween candy and handed out to trick-or-treaters in the
Stenning Hills section of Kennett Square was, in fact, a hoax.

The two children who reported the
incidents have now recanted their statements and admitted that they
put the needles in the candy themselves.

“We are relieved to find out that
nobody was trying to hurt kids in Kennett Square,” Police Chief
Edward Zunino said in a statement. “We are a safe and vibrant
community, and we protect our children.”

According to the Chester County
District Attorney's Office, the first report of candy being tampered
with came on Nov. 1 from an 11-year-old girl who said that sewing
needles had been found in Twix candy bars that she collected while
trick-or-treating on Halloween.

However, the investigation revealed
that she took several needles from her mother's sewing kit and hid
them in the Twix bars. She did this after seeing a photograph of
needles in candy shown to her by an adult who was advising her to be
safe while trick-or-treating.

A second incident involved a
12-year-old boy who heard the reports about the first incident and
imitated what had been reported. He inserted a needle inside a
Snickers bar and showed the candy to his older sister, who promptly
reported it to police.

Because of the ages of the children
involved, and the cooperation that police received from their
families, no formal charges will be filed against the children for
perpetrating the hoax.

Chester County District Attorney Tom
Hogan stated, “Sometimes, proving that a crime did not happen is as
important as proving that a crime did happen. In this case, law
enforcement treated the initial report seriously, notified the
community for the sake of safety, but kept doggedly investigating the
matter. As a result of that persistence, we are now able to assure
the citizens of Kennett Square that nobody was trying to harm any
children by tampering with Halloween candy.”